There were lines up the stairs from The Laughing Post and out the door of the Shakespeare Building for both sold-out comedy sets Friday night. It's what happens when you've got a former "Saturday Night Live" player and star of a cult film in the house.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh," is what Jim Breuer had to say when he addressed the packed club. It's his signature laugh -- rapid-fire, four heh's in a row, goofy and excitable, even a bit intoxicated in some way.

"This is the way I look," the usually glassy-eyed Breuer (co-star of stoner comedy "Half-Baked") swore to the audience. "I am not high right now."

Pause.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh."

Breuer was lit with comedy. He delivered a loose but energetic set on being a parent, on being a son and on being Goat Boy.

He did succumb to audience demands to do the '90s SNL half-man, half-goat character, but turned it into the highlight of the evening, his story on why he really hates goats. Breuer re-enacted the scene from his childhood -- playing himself, his mother and a herd of goats -- in which he was brutally attacked in a petting-zoo feeding frenzy.

Breuer can be a one-man sketch team, though a few times he sidetracked himself into odd bouts of noise bleatings and flat routines like his finger-puppet bit.

But when focused, Breuer can walk the fine line stretched with comic tension between being the mature 40-year-old and the goofball. There is no more wild partying like an SNL star, but he can have enough fun with his three kids. Raising tots is "like watching chimps on the Discovery Channel," Breuer said, and he did another one-man sketch on roughhousing with his kids.

With his 84-year-old father in the front row (James Breuer is touring with his son to get out of the house, the younger Breuer told the Gazette in an interview), Breuer did a loving imitation of the senior's shuffling movements and love for "$1.99 spaghetti night at the Elks club."

His dad has always kept Breuer grounded in reality, the son said. He told of how, in the SNL days, he got Sylvester Stallone to meet Dad. Stallone bragged about his Planet Hollywood restaurant to the senior. Dad croaked to the star: "I've been there. Fifteen dollars for a beer. F--- that."

Breuer surprisingly entered the heavy subject of the Iraq war and the stress faced by the troops. He did a little re-creation of the action in-country, then contrasted that with the banal normalcy back home. It's why returned troops "are either like this," Breuer gave a hard stare into the distance, "or like this," and he pantomimed getting drunk and passing out. It was dark humor, but the audience responded positively.

But he's no George Carlin. Breuer can't stay dark and heavy for long. Eventually he brought out his old "your stomach is the bouncer" bit. Breuer imitated various drinks -- beers, fuzzy navels, scotch, Jack Daniels -- as guests crowding a party in the stomach. A fight breaks out -- maybe scotch started it, maybe tequila -- and the stomach demands, "everybody out!"

Breuer left the audience with a detailed portrayal of vomiting. He's the new, older Breuer, but he's still Breuer. Heh, heh, heh, heh.

Russ Williamson opened. The young newcomer from Chicago is already a familiar face here after being a regular at the Laughing Post. His self-mocking fat jokes are funny, but he's just averagely stout. Williamson should either put on more weight or get new material.